Geotectonics, Vol. 35, No. 6, 2001, pp. 471–489. Translated from Geotektonika, No. 6, 2001, pp. 56–74. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2001 by Solov’ev, Brandon, Garver, Shapiro. English Translation Copyright © 2001 by MAIK “Nauka /Interperiodica” (Russia). Kinematics of the Vatyn–Lesnaya Thrust Fault (Southern Koryakia) A. V. Solov’ev*, M. T. Brandon**, J. I. Garver***, and M. N. Shapiro**** *Institute of the Lithosphere of Marginal Seas, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetnyi per. 22, Moscow, 109180 Russia **Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue, P.O. Box 208109, New Haven, US ***Union College, Schenectady NY, 12308-2311, US ****Schmidt Joint Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Bol’shaya Gruzinskaya ul. 10, Moscow, 123810 Russia Received May 15, 2000 Abstract—The Vatyn–Lesnaya thrust fault, exposed in southern Koryakia and northern Kamchatka, is among the largest collisional sutures in northeast Asia. The thrust fault juxtaposes the terrane of a Pacific island-arc system against the deposits of the Eurasian continental margin. Thrusting terminated the arc–continent collision in the Middle Eocene. Based on a detailed structural analysis, the structure and kinematics of the suture zone were deduced and its evolution model was compiled. An attempt to discriminate structural features by age is presented. The origin of structural features is interpreted against the background of the region-scale of Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic geodynamics. INTRODUCTION thonous and allochthonous sequences in the immediate The Vatyn–Lesnaya thrust fault is among the largest vicinity of the suture, and kinematic indicators on the sutures in northeast Asia, traceable over more than thrust fault plane were analyzed. 800 km in southern Koryakia and Northern Kamchatka The data on deformations in the autochthon and [15, 19, 28, 31, 33]. The suture separates the Creta- allochthon are based on field measurements of bedding, ceous–Paleogene deposits of the Eurasian continental cleavage, fault planes, and the orientations of fold axes margin [5, 11, 18, 21, 28] from the marginal marine and and axial planes. The hinges of some folds were calcu- island-arc assemblages of the Cretaceous–Paleocene lated as β-axes1 and deduced as π-axes2 [44]. The ste- age [5, 30], which were formed in the Pacific and trans- ported over considerable distances [13, 14]. The fly- reograms were plotted and the data were analyzed using Spheristat v. 1.1 Frontenac Wordsmiths (1990) schoid sequence of the continental margin presently occurs in the Ukelayat–Lesnaya trough [11, 18, 21, 28], and Quickplot v. 1.0 D. van Everdingen & J. van whereas the marginal marine and island-arc assem- Gool (1990) software. Data point densities were con- blages occur in the Olyutorsky zone with a mosaic het- toured using the same method as in [45] and interpreted erogeneous basement [6]. using the eigenvector method [10, 43]. The models of collision between the Cretaceous The directions of the relative displacements along island-arc system and the Eurasian continental margin faults (thrust faults) were determined using internal proposed by our predecessors were based on geologic rotation axes analysis [36]. This method is based on the [16, 18, 30, 32] and paleomagnetic data [13, 32, 40], assumption that the symmetry of an ideal fault zone ini- but the structure and kinematics of the Vatyn–Lesnaya tiated in a setting of progressive simple shear strain is thrust fault have never been taken into account. From monoclinic (Fig. 2a), i.e., the symmetry of the struc- 1994–1999, we conducted a detailed study of five tural features distribution is monoclinic. The kinematic domains within the thrust zone (Fig. 1). In each domain, the precise position of the thrust plane was indicators are mesostructures that bear evidence for the rotational component of deformation such as asymmet- identified, the kinematics of movements on this plane 3 was determined, and the specific structural features of rical folds (Fig. 2c) and Riedel structures (Fig. 2b). the allochthon and autochthon of the thrust fault zone 1 β-axis is the fold axis (hinge) calculated as a trace of axial planar were studied. cleavage on the bedding plane [44]. 2 π-axis is the fold axis (hinge) calculated as being perpendicular to the great-circle girdle, along which the bedding poles are dis- STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE persed. 3 The term Riedel structures is used according to [36] to avoid To study the structure of the Vatyn–Lesnaya thrust ambiguity in the names of planar features; in the Russian litera- zone, structural surveys were performed in the autoch- ture, it corresponds to the term Riedel shear. 471 472 SOLOV’EV et al. (a) 170° W 174° E NNortheastortheast 64° RRussiaussia N AAlaskalaska KKoryakoryak HHighlandighland hr t▲ ust fault ▲ a ▲ y ▲ 60° sna ▲ B ▲ e ▲ e -L ❙ r ▲ i n ❙ n ty g a▲ V ❙ S ▲ e a ❙ s a h ❙ e e e e k ❙ l g g t g ❙ f d d a d FFig.ig. 11BB i i h i R R c ❙ R ❙ ❙ v v v o o m o BBERINGERING h h 58° a ❙ h s s s ❙ r r ä r i i CCommanderommander i ❙ h h ❙ h SSEAEA ❙ S S S ❙ BBasinasin ❙ ❙ ▲ ▲ ❙ ❙ ❙ ❙ ❙ ❙ ❙ AAleutianleutian ❙ ❙ ❙ B ❙ BBasinasin ▲ ow ▲ e ❙ rs R id BBowersowers g ❙ ▲ e ▲ 0 220000 440000 kkmm ▲A l e BBasinasin u ❙ t i a n ▲ ▲ a r c ▲ ▲ ▲ ❙ ▲ ▲ 1 2 3 4 ❙ 5 ▲ 6 ▲ 7 8 (b) NN2525 NN3535 FFig.ig. 3 NN1212 FFig.ig. 4 NN2828 FFig.ig. 6 OOlyutorskylyutorsky A NN1414 E FFig.ig. 8 PPeninsulaeninsula S G N I R E B SSEAEA OOFF FFig.ig. 9 KKaraginskyaraginsky II.. OOKHOTSKKHOTSK ‡ 1 2 3 b 4 5500 0 5500 kkmm Fig. 6 5 N12 6 7 8 A Riedel structure is an association of planar meso- features, indeed, reflects monoclinic deformation sym- structures originating from simple shear strain. Experi- metry [42]. A fault zone symmetry plane is deduced mental studies of Riedel structures suggest that dis- from the geometry of structural features observed in placements occur along three planes, Y, P, and R, this zone, and the intersection of the deduced symmetry formed in a brittle shear zone; the symmetry of these plane with the fault plane corresponds to the slip vec- GEOTECTONICS Vol. 35 No. 6 2001 KINEMATICS OF THE VATYN–LESNAYA THRUST FAULT (SOUTHERN KORYAKIA) 473 Fig. 1. Vatyn–Lesnaya thrust fault in the structural framework of the Bering Sea region [15, 27, 28, 35, 48], (a) location; (b) struc- tural–kinematic analysis data. (a): (1) Aleutian and Kamchatka arcs with active modern volcanism; (2) Olyutorsky–Kamchatka fold zone and its possible offshore extension into the Bering Sea; (3) Cretaceous–Paleogene Andean-type marginal volcanic belts initi- ated on blocks of various ages accreted to Eurasia during the late Mesozoic; (4) spreading centers; (5) fossil and (6) modern trenches; (7) Vatyn–Lesnaya thrust fault; (8) strike-slip faults. (b): (1) Cenozoic deposits undifferentiated; (2) clastics of the Ukelayat–Lesnaya thrust (Cretaceous–Eocene); (3) volcanic–cherty–clastic deposits of a marginal sea and the Olyutorsky island arc (Cretaceous–Pale- ocene); (4) Vatyn–Lesnaya thrust fault, (a) mapped and (b) inferred; (5) location and number of detailed surveying areas; (6) dia- grams showing the allochthon slip directions relative to the autochthon in the Vatyn–Lesnaya suture zone derived from the analyses of internal rotation axes on Riedel structures [36]. Wulff net; solid lines indicate projections to the upper hemisphere and dotted lines, to the lower hemisphere. Great-circle girdle corresponds to the average thrust fault orientation in this area. Arrow indicates the syn- optic hanging wall slip vector reflecting an average regional tectonic transport durection in the thrust zone; the arc shows the confi- dence angle. N is the number of structural features (Riedel structures) used in the calculations; (7) orientation of the main compres- sion axis during the autochthon structuring event (the flysch filling the Ukelayat–Lesnaya trough), arrows indicate the predominant vergence of the structure; small arrow indicates the vergence near the thrust fault; (8) vergence of structures in allochthonous com- plexes; arrows in the Lesnaya sector of the thrust fault (Figs. 8, 9) indicate the vergence of minor asymmetrical folds (Fig. 11d) wide- spread in the near-thrust part of the allochthon (Shamanka dome) and between allochthonous slabs (Vatapvayam dome). (‡) Slip vector Hanging wall Thrust fault zone Mirror plane Main fault surface (b) (c) Slip Vergence vector vector Y P Main fault Symmetry plane surface Internal Internal R rotation axis rotation axis (d) Thrust Z-axes Synoptic slip vector fault plane S-axes Synoptic Synoptic internal symmetry plane rotation axis Fig. 2. An ideal scheme of a thrust fault zone with a monoclinic symmetry formed in a setting of progressive non-coaxial deforma- tion [36, 47] (a); internal rotation axes showing the Riedel structure (b) and fold (c) orientations and asymmetry; and a stereogram showing the hypothetical local rotation axes (S and Z) distribution near the average direction called the synoptic rotation axis [36]. For Riedel structures (b): Y—main fault surface, R—secondary splay faults inclined in slip direction (Riedel shears); P—shear joints or cleavage inclined in the opposite direction. GEOTECTONICS Vol. 35 No. 6 2001 474 SOLOV’EV et al. tor—the direction of this vector being interpreted as the posed of the Upper Cretaceous–Middle Eocene fly- slip direction of the hanging wall relative to the foot- schoid fill of the Ukelayat–Lesnaya trough [5, 11, 18, wall. The orientation of any asymmetrical fold or 21, 23, 38], on which the Cretaceous marginal marine Riedel structure is represented by an internal rotation deposits and the Upper Cretaceous–Paleocene mar- axis, which indicates the sense of rotation (Figs. 2b, 2c). ginal sea and island arc assemblages are obducted [1, 4, Rotation is designated as either “S” or “Z” to indicate 5, 24, 30, 32].